Many indigent or bedridden patients are physically incapable of maintaining themselves hygienically clean, and in the case of patients who are totally or partially incontinent, the maintenance of hygienic cleanliness is a major consideration.
The only solution after a bowel or bladder movement is to remove the dirtied linen and garments worn by the patient and replace them with fresh sheets and clothing. In many cases, dirtying occurs quite frequently, and it is an extremely time consuming job for hospital attendants to continually maintain their numerous patients in a state of hygienic cleanliness. In addition to the actual labor involved, the responsibility of being an attendant for a patient is not an enviable one and it is becoming more and more difficult to secure individuals who are prepared to act in such as capacity. As a result, hospitals and the like are becoming increasingly short of capable personnel in patient hygienic cleanliness with the result that patients may be uncomfortable for lengthy periods of time to say nothing of the ever-present problem of infection.
Apart from the labor and hygienic problems involved, the constant washing and rewashing of bed linen and garments for bedridden patients places extremely demanding and expensive demands on the laundries, and of course necessitates having to have an extremely large number of sheets and linen and bed clothing available to satisfy the cyclic requirements involved. Laundry facilities of course necessitate the use of large quantities of water and strong cleaning agents with an ever increasing cost factor.